Guild Wars 2

When watching the recent Dragonhunter PoI stream on twitch, I noticed a difference in the Radiance trait “Radiant Fire”

On the specialisations preview at Dulfy, the screenshotted tooltip for the trait amounts to “Gain Zealot’s Flame when you critically hit. Burning duration is increased 20%. Torch abilities recharge 20% faster”.

However, in the recent livestream (at 33:54), the tooltip amounts to “Gain Zealot’s Flame when critically hit. Burning duration is increased 20%. Torch abilities recharge 20% faster”

The 1st case would indicate that you get Zealot’s Flame when you critically hit someone else, but in the 2nd it suggests that you get Zealot’s Flame when you get critically hit (if the elementalist tooltip for Soothing Ice is anything to go by)

My guess is that the 2nd case is more likely correct as it’s missing the brackets around it indicating provisionality, so it’s presumably been checked and revised by someone since we first saw the tooltip…

Thoughts?

Hey Iris,

I think you posted the wrong link, as the one you’ve posted is still the OP’s build. I guess you copy/pasted the url rather than hitting “Get Quick Link” at the bottom (?)

1. Sword – Mesmer
2. Greatsword – Warrior
3. Mace – Guardian
4. Hammer – Guardian
5. Staff – Ele
6. Focus – Mesmer
7. Shield – Guardian
8. Torch – Ranger
9. Dagger – Thief
10. Scepter – Necro
11. Trident – no idea really
12. Spear – Warrior
13. Harpoon gun – Engineer
14. Shortbow – Ranger
15. Longbow – Ranger
16. Axe – Warrior
17. Pistol – Thief
18. Rifle – Engineer
19. Warhorn – Warrior

1 Elementalist
2 Thief
3 Engineer

1 Balance between roles – damage, support, control and (to some extent) bunker – support and control look like poor choices in pve relative to berserker-style damage, and bunker is in much the same boat.

2 Event scaling – events are often fun when there are 10 people or so, but when there are absolutely lots, events can become too zergy

3 The condition cap – maybe some kind of rework of the way conditions work and/or some less server intensive way of calculating them.

Well, regardless of the merits of GS vs other options, thanks for collating the info, Frifox

Sword MH – specifically Bonnetti’s Rapier.

Setup-wise, my fave set is Sword/Pistol

I have Sword/Focus as my switch-set much of the time, though I change weapon loadouts as needed by the situation.

Yes – I do.

I really enjoyed that side of necro. Kind of hard to recall now, with it being so long ago, but had fun with dark pact, well of blood, life siphon etc.

AndrewSX.3794:

2 words.

Mainhand Pistol.

Then split power and condition between it and Scepter.

Make it happen already.

Seconded!

One skill from GW1 that I’d love to see return, but in GW2 form….

Shatter Delusions – remove all stacks of confusion on target. Deals X damage to the target per stack removed.

No – I still enjoy my mesmer a lot. In spite of today’s nerfs, I’ll still feel effective, I’m sure, and it’ll be remaining my main for the forseeable future.

Otherwise, I agree with DaShi – if something is genuinely OP/UP, the best way of influencing this is to play it, get some data, and then draft a good, well-written and clear justification as to why it needs a change….I’m sure the devs mentally filter out “unconstructive” posts quite quickly, or at least take them less seriously.

Besides, the cycle of buffs and nerfs is kinda the norm for MMOs these days….if one’s going to play MMOs, one needs to get used to that…but I can see that’s not always easy.

TBH, I was expecting a few more things…

Had been hoping for an improvement to Illusionary Mage (I mean, an inspiration build with Phantasmal Defender has the retaliation aspect of IM completely beat!)

I like the improvements to all the on-interrupt traits, but am a bit worried that it will end up being OP. With Chaos storm and some of our other multi-target interrupts, we could stack a lot of might and many other boons with Bountiful Interruption….wonder if there’s an ICD to that trait. Furious Interruption and Halting Strike now also look very interesting….

Was very surprised that Illusionist’s Celerity is being left as low as it currently is in the Illusions tree – seems way too good (an also universally useful) for the 5-point slot IMO. However, that would be quite a major change for some builds….possibly warranted, however.

Also, I’m wondering what Anet’s plans are re the sceptre….with the change to #2 applying torment at the cost of some of its direct damage, do they want this to be a condition weapon? If so, should the autoattack change so that some of its direct damage is also replaced by a condition (1 stack bleed or even 1 stack torment?) (maybe Ether Blast, the second stage of the autoattack?)

(If Anet’s plan is to remake sceptre into a condition weapon, hopefully there’ll be a 1-hand ranged power choice too, at some stage….pistol? ^^)

The change to “Into the Void” doesn’t really surprise me….makes sense really…especially with the buffs to the on-interrupt traits.

A few comments about the notes -

Firstly, I can’t understand why Anet would make Glyph of Elemental Power a stunbreaker. I mean, I get that they wanted to move stunbreakers into other skill families, and that GoEP is the best fit amongst glyphs (not saying much!), but it’s a buffing/offensive skill, not a defensive one. Why not give the stunbreak property to Arcane Shield, and give the arcane family a stunbreak instead of glyphs?

Secondly, I’m a bit concerned that there’s not enough of a draw to the <30 area of the fire traitline for many builds.

Thirdly, I had hoped/expected to see some love for focus (esp. fire). The change to the cast speed of Firewall is nice and all, but the fire attunement there is still very lacklustre….Firewall only seems useful if the opponent is foolish enough to stand in it (and Fire Shield is hardly a big draw) Also about focus, it still seems odd that there’s no trait that relates purely to eles holding focus (I mean, there are traits that are contingent on staff, dagger and sceptre, but not focus).

Kind of unsurprised that Bountiful Power is being nerfed – was always a bit too good IMO.

Now looking forward to at least trying out “Fresh Air” – sounds like it will be fun!

What most surprises me is that there hasn’t been any consolidation between the symbol traits – looked like the most obvious way to tidy up the trait lines and perhaps get some more value to that aspect of the zeal tree (not to mention honor). Would also have freed up some more slots for additional trait choices.

Whilst thinking about the zeal tree, I don’t quite understand the new GM trait “Kindled Zeal” – 10% of power converts to condition damage. As guardians really only have burning, and that only stacks in duration rather than intensity, I can’t see the mileage in focussing on condition damage for burning….especially if teamed with an ele or engineer.

Maybe they’re planning on eventually making some kind of condition setup viable for guardians (?)

Pendragon.8735:

Yeah Dark Fire, they can think of any fluff thing that fits.

Burning is great, fast ramp up damage. I’m liking this.

Where is that trait gonna be I wonder though, if its far down a line then it might be too build defining to get easily

Just a hunch, but there’s been some talk about DS#5, so I imagine this may inflict burning somehow – would be one way to make DS more valuable for condi setups too perhaps? With the talk about life force being easier to get, could DS#4 be easier to gain life force from, and DS#5 require that life force is spent, but be quite powerful?

Mathiesin.7801:

Mathiesin.7801:

maddoctor.2738:

Mathiesin.7801:

Ty ricky markham.8173, people dont take constructive criticism over the things they love to well ( Vayne, No Walking, Maddoctor, Inculpatus ) yet they rant about how important it is provide constructive feedback, and when I have, im wrong!? How can i be wrong with my own observation?

Just because you don’t agree, doesn’t mean I am wrong, it just means we have two opposing points of view.

No. It means you have to reevaluate your view if everyone else is having a different experience. You may say the Earth is flat, based on some of your experience, that won’t change the fact that it is round. You didn’t offer constructive critisism, your “arguments” have been countered again and again yet you dismiss the other opinion as if your is the supreme one.

And you are not taking construcive feedback on your own review very well, in fact you only dismiss any different opinions, stop and think, what you are doing is EXACTLY what you don’t want others to do to you.

So I should conform because I have a different point of view… got it!

“No. It means you have to reevaluate your view if everyone else is having a different experience.”

Maddoctor do not turn the table as though you are some saint being dismissed, you are trying to force me to accept that your experiences should be my experiences, you keep posting about what your game experience has been like, when it is completely irrelevant to my game experience.

One thing which people are objecting to is that your review is not merely an account of your personal experience, but actually makes several claims that you would have taken as obejctively true e.g. that GW2 has poorly executed balancing, or that the game isn’t worth the price tag. I’m certainly not going to ask that you take my experience as being more valid than yours, (if that’s even a meaningful way for experiences to relate!) but I am going to say that the combination of my experiences, along with your arguments, give me little reason to accept your conclusion.

Your review doesn’t give us many reasons to accept your conclusions as being correct e.g. your claim that the balancing is poor is undercut by your analysis of class strengths/weaknesses. If people disagree with your fundemental position on class strengths/weaknesses, then they’re unlikely to accept a follow-on conclusion that the GW2 balancing has been poorly executed.

Your claim above that “So I should conform because I have a different point of view… got it!” is a poor straw-man, of course, as maddoctor said nothing like that

There are many parts of your review that are highly subject to bias…taking one section as example – “The monotonous grind seems to be continuous as most players will never receive an exotic worth more than 5G on the Auction House.This portion of the game is boring, and will make you feel unaccomplished.”

Firstly, it’s each person’s choice to grind or not to grind. Secondly, your view assumes the point of view of a progression-player, as it appears to assume that grinding is necessary . Not everyone plays the game that way. Thirdly, not everyone gains a sense of accomplishment from the items they’ve grinded (or from their monetary value). Fourthly, as an aside, can you see how the above section is not merely an account of your experience, but is making claim to objective truth?

For me, personally, I get more of a sense of accomplishment from having overcome the odds in a tough situation and believing that I played well.

There are a few points in your review with which I agree (e.g. I find little challenge in the southsun boss events), but I disagree with many of your conclusions